Writing insights on all things business, life, philosophy, and entrepreneurship.
Last Sunday I was sitting in VOUS church in Miami's Design District. The pastor was talking about foundations when he dropped a line that's been stuck in my head ever since: "What are you building on?" I've been obsessing over this question all week. Not just about foundations, but about direction. About vectors. About the lanes we choose to apply our force. Most people focus purely on effort. On intensity. On input. But they miss something fundamental about how success actually works: the direction of your force matters more than its magnitude. Think about this: Person A is lifting a thousand pounds in a pool. Person B is lifting a thousand pounds in a gym. Same weight. Same effort. Completely different outcomes. The water changes everything. The environment transforms the effectiveness of the force. Two people can exert identical energy and get radically different results based solely on where they chose to apply that energy. This principle reveals itself everywhere once you start looking for it. In markets, in business, in life. The direction of force becomes more crucial than the force itself. Take two traders applying the same strategy with equal skill. One in a trending market, one in a choppy market. Same decisions, same execution, vastly different results. The market environment - the vector - determines the outcome more than the individual actions. Or look at entrepreneurs entering different markets. One pushing into an emerging space with tailwinds, another fighting in a saturated market with headwinds. Same effort, same talent, but their chosen vectors create entirely different resistance patterns. The truly successful understand this intuitively. They don't just evaluate opportunities based on potential reward. They analyze the natural forces at play. The currents they'll be swimming with or against. The winds that will either multiply or divide their efforts. This changes everything about how you should analyze opportunities:
I've noticed the most successful operators don't try to overcome bad vectors with more force. They don't fight stronger headwinds by pushing harder. Instead, they become expert readers of currents and winds. They choose their lanes carefully, understanding that vector selection often matters more than execution. It's like sailing. The skilled sailor doesn't fight the wind - they read it, understand it, use it. They know their success depends more on working with natural forces than against them. In today's market, some vectors naturally amplify effort while others naturally resist it. Building in AI right now is like sailing with strong winds. Trying to compete with entrenched social platforms is like rowing upstream in a storm. The hard truth is that perfect execution in the wrong vector often produces worse results than average execution in the right one. The direction you're pushing matters more than how hard you're pushing. This realization transforms how you should evaluate every opportunity: Not just what returns are possible, but what forces are in play. Not just what you could build, but what currents you're building against. Not just what you're capable of, but what the vector will naturally resist or amplify. Sitting in that church, I realized this principle applies to everything. Your career choice, your business focus, your skill development - every decision is actually a vector decision. You're not just choosing what to do, you're choosing which forces will either amplify or diminish your efforts. The vector matters more than the force. The direction matters more than the effort. The lane matters more than the push. Choose your vectors carefully. The rest is just physics. |
Writing insights on all things business, life, philosophy, and entrepreneurship.